Tory tycoon's spread-betting firm

buoyed by Covid-19 crisis

Mark Sweney

This article is more than 10 months old

Core revenue booms for former party treasurer Peter Cruddas’s

CMC Markets

Peter Cruddas of CMC Markets says his business was not dependent on the market turmoil created by

the coronavirus. Photograph: Eamonn McCabe/The Guardian

@marksweney
Fri 3 Apr 2020 14.13 BST

First published on Fri 3 Apr 2020 09.46 BST

CMC Markets, the financial spread-betting firm run by city tycoon

Peter Cruddas, said business has boomed in the first quarter this
year as the coronavirus wrought havoc on global financial markets.
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 The company said net trading revenue from its core contract for
difference (CFD) business, a form of derivative trading, almost
doubled year-on-year to £214m in the 12 months to the end of
March.

“As announced in a series of upgrades throughout the financial year,

net trading revenue across the group has been strong [throughout
the 2020 financial year] and in particular during the final quarter of
the year,” the company said.

CMC’s coronavirus–fuelled bumper year comes as more than 20

MPs have called for strict curbs on gambling during the Covid-19
lockdown.

Last week, the Betting & Gaming Council issued a 10-point pledge,
promising extra steps to ensure that firms do not exploit vulnerable
people and addicts who may be at increased risk due to the inertia
inherent in staying at home for long periods. However, in a letter to
the government the MPs say the industry’s measures are “very
weak”.

CMC chief executive Cruddas, a former Conservative party treasurer

who founded the business in 1989, said his betting operation was
not dependent on the market turmoil created by the coronavirus.

“We’re not reliant on a sustained period of high volatility in markets,”

he said. “Our well invested platform, technical expertise and
diversified offering supports us delivering sustainable results not just
now but also in years to come.”

Last month, CMC said client trading activity more than doubled in
the first 13 trading days in March, as the impact of the virus became
a global phenomenon, leading the company to issue a profit
upgrade.
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At the time Cruddas said the digital nature of CMC’s business meant
that since the spread of the virus it has been “effectively able to run
it from home and our disaster recovery sites in Hertfordshire and
Sydney”.

He added that 99% of London staff are either working from home, or
at its UK disaster recovery site, and there is “effectively no limit to
the amount of time we can operate this way”.

“During these times of global uncertainty, of course our first priority

is to protect the health, safety and wellbeing of our employees and to
support our clients,” said Cruddas, a major financial backer of the
Brexit campaign, on Friday. “I am impressed by the dedication our
teams have shown in preventing disruption while working in
unprecedented circumstances.”

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